I cannot describe how quick he was. I was a sub 11 sec 100 mètre runner at school. He was so much quicker. I remember I was asked to play center back / sweeper when we played him! Did okay, he was strong but his touch wasn’t great and I figured I could nip in front of him and steal the ball. There were a couple of balls hits over the top that I had head starts on and I was sliding to just barely get touches as he caught me up. He didn’t score but they were always tough games.

I played for a few teams around the isthmian League including Sutton United. I played a few games for my county and also got a game for the FA Colts, a select team from schools in London that played in a friendly vs Eton school. One of my teams had a run to the FA Vase semis and I was a non playing part of the Sutton squad ( I was young) when they beat Coventry and went to Norwich (did not go well).

My Sunday team won the county cup a couple of times. I know I got scouted a few times and trained with Crystal Palace youth but it never amounted to an offer.

One of the issues was that I never had a settled position. I literally could play everywhere. I even suited up in goal for an isthmian league game ( used to be the diadora league) when we had 3 goalies out and the goalie we had for an away game hurt himself in the warm up. My best position was probably center mid but I was left footed and quick so naturally I was asked to play out wide or as striker.

I remember playing some famous names. Dennis Wise and a lot of the crazy gang. Alan Pardew, John Salako, Richard Shaw from Palace. Our Sunday morning team played in a league where one or two teams had players affiliated to Wimbledon. For some reason, Daley Thompson played a couple of times against us. He was rapid! We had a very good Sunday team, with lots of players who had been youth team players at various pro clubs in the area. We would attract a lot of scouts.

Apparently they once did though

It does get it right but it’s missing one or two big ingredients, relegation and promotion.

The aim is for parity but in reality there’s still a difference between the rich and the poor because of local TV deals and free agency. The big market teams can afford to go after and pay big contracts for the best players. They employ the best scouts. Is it perfect correlation? No, but it is easier for a big team to rebuild quicker than a small market team. The New York Yankees had a bad season this year. But they can go and sign a couple of big band free agents this winter to supplement their squad. Cleveland on the other hand isn’t an attractive destination for a star player, they’re mostly always selling and drafting and picking up the lower end of the talent in free agency.

But that big thing is no relegation.

From what I recall, Didier Drogba had a slow start in his first season and went in to become a Bridge Legend.

I agree and hate the business side. Not so many years ago, a team mostly depended on its youth system to provide the core of the team. My team is Chelsea and I don’t like what that team has become. I loved Frank’s first year when we were forced to bring young players into the team. We weren’t the best but throughout the team there were connections with the fans. I’m a local, Chelsea or Palace were my main options. Mount, James, Chalobah, Abraham all came into the team.

Now we seem to buy players who are not much better than the homegrown players who are sold to maximize income for FFP.

But is Nicholas Jackson better than Tammy (I know he was sold a while ago) or Disasi that much better than a Chalobah or before that Tomori? Is Cuccurella better than Maatsen (I know he’s Dutch)